Many structures require components to be joined together with a fitting that requires electrical grounding. For example, flight hardware for satellite applications may include graphite tubes connected via a titanium fitting. To ground the joint, a conductor, or grounding wire, may be secured in place over the joint using a conductive rubber-like material. One implementation is a conductive ground tab. A conductive ground tab includes a conductor secured to the underlying fitting or structure being grounded by a conductive compound.
In preparing conductive ground tabs, there is currently no standardized process used by all technicians. For any particular application, there may be numerous ground tabs required on a structure, with varying dimensions required according to engineering specifications of the specific implementation. For each ground tab, a technician will typically tape off an area to which the ground tab will be applied, which may require cutting the tape to the applicable dimensions. This process is cumbersome and time consuming. Additionally, the repeated use of a cutting tool increases the risk of an injury.
It is with respect to these considerations and others that the disclosure made herein is presented.